It's raining, hallelujah!

Our house in the jungle and a few other pix

8 hours and the loss of a day in time we arrive in Fiji.  The dateline crosses here so we left Hawaii at 8 Friday morning and arrived at 3.30 Saturday afternoon!  The first thing that hits is the humidity.  A stop-over in Samoa where we stand in the aircraft doorway to ease our legs and breathe in the heat prepared us, but not for the crashing thunderstorm – and the ukulele band - on arrival in Nadi.  From the air we could see how lush the islands are with the classic turquoise waters inside the coral reefs and the white sand ringing the rainforest.  The driver of the shuttle to the hotel (where we have to wait overnight for the hopper plane to our island) obligingly detoured to a shop for us to buy water and then also gave a local a lift on the way.  The hotel has all mod cons, but a short walk along the highway to look for somewhere to eat reveals this as a small oasis in a more primitive setting.  On a site of market/supermarket we found a bakery with food and enjoyed a delicious Chinese/Korean style meal served by a gentle Fiiian with flowers in her hair. Here we get more for our pound than in US with 2.6 FJ$ to the £1 and prices less than in US in general.  We took the afternoon flight on an 18-seater (!) rubber band job from Nadi to Savusavu on Vanua Levu, the second largest island where we have a home exchange planned – with no idea what we are going to except that Andrea will be at the airport to pick us up! Glenn thought that De Haviland stopped making air craft after the second world war Mosquito bomber but this “TwinOtter” proved us wrong (unless of course it was pre-war!); we were the only 2 passengers and sat up behind and between the two pilots so they can’t have made any money on this 1.5hr flight.  It was a stunning flight over the reefs and lagoons.

It is cyclone season and we arrived with an unsettled forecast but nothing could prepare us for the battering humidity.  The house exchange we had was in a pretty rainforest setting just 200m from a lagoon but the incessant rain and the greenery provided the humidity and also blocked all breeze from the house.  The house was stifling hot with its tin roof and we spent most of our time on a mattress on the veranda under a mossie net with a fan blowing on us.  There was, actually, nothing to do and nothing to see and only a few km of surfaced roads.  In the end we hired a rent-a-wreck with air-con and spent as much time as possible in it.  The mossies and ants couldn’t get at us in there either – Sue reckons the mossies were well-prepared for our British Army spec deet, loved it and told all their friends.

The House “Boy” and his daughter were very sweet and took us to see their village.  There is a particular etiquette necessary in all villages.  One must not wear hats or sunglasses – it is disrespectful to the village elder who is the only one allowed to wear a hat.  You must find someone to present you to the elder and buy a gift of the local brew sold in coconut shells to give him after which you will be allowed to visit!  You must not pass in front of someone sitting, only behind; must not sit with your legs straight out in front, but bent to the side or cross-legged – in particular not to have the soles of your feet facing the ceremonial cup or the elder!  You must learn the greetings too and, as in many places, it is impolite just to go up to someone and start asking questions, you must greet them properly first.  Whilst we were there, a group arrived from the Cousteau Resort and we had a bit of ethnic dancing by warriors and maidens and then the kava ceremony.  We won’t go into the kava but Glenn was offered some, it’s a bit like swamp water, but browner, and it wasn’t until 2 days later that his bowels gave out, so maybe it wasn’t that after all.

The only place to escape the humidity was underwater and Glenn did 4 dives, 2 of which were 30miles out by dive boat to a protected marine park and it was the best dive of his life.  Red Sea, Caribbean, Great Barrier Reef are all rubbish compared to this, shame it’s so far to get to but probably also the only reason that it is so beautiful.  Even so, the dive operator took out people who really weren’t up to it and they started kicking the coral fans to bits – but these were good customers so, hey, hell…. The current on the last dive a real challenge and Glenn has reef burn along both inner forearms where he had to hang on to the reef for grim death and watch the world get flung by.  It’s going down gradually- the reef burn that is.

If you are ever tempted to fly with the local joke monopoly airline Pacific Sun, don’t.  Now we know where “coconut airways” went to in the sixties.  They started cancelling us 2 weeks before we got here and now they have cancelled 4 flights, they don’t inform you even though they have all our contact details.  When they do fly, they announce (only after take-off) that the plane was overweight (Fijieans tend to be on the large size and they weigh you here with the luggage, thankfully not “speak-your-weight”) and that they have left 100kg baggage behind, of course it included ours.

Today is Friday, we lost our onward flight to Tonga last Tuesday and have been festering at an airport hotel (at least the bedroom is aircon and we are loath to leave it) for today’s flight (yes, cancelled).  We might get away tomorrow but have lost 4 of our 6 nights on Tonga and even if we get there, it will be just for 1 day.  Suddenly our next flight from Tonga to Auckland is looking very civilised.  We’ve been lied to, fobbed-off, refused all help with meals, accommodation and transfers.  Today  did it for Glenn and he marched backstage to the airline offices and cornered  its most senior person here in his office for an hour and gave him the option of listening or calling the police.  It took an hour to recount all the woes and at the end the manager quite agreed that they were all imbeciles and said that even he was looking for a new job.  He is trying to get us 1500 bucks to replace our extra outlay but don’t hold your breath.

I think that we are expanding our “places to avoid list” such as SE Asian cities with the Pacific Islands.  You can see why Captain Bligh had his work cut out here.  It’s such a shame because the average Fijians are so friendly and genuine.

Bula Vinaka for now…..

Westward Ho. Around the World in 80 Delays.

Brief comments on the above photos:

-         Glenn (in his dreams) on his first surf lesson close to the world-famous “Pipe”.

-         The portions are enormous, the arses are AWESOME (no, folks, this is not Sue) and it took an hour to get this ‘gal out of the railings

-         The sunsets are enormous and just plain AWESOME

Its only the 12^th day of the new year and already in the past 2 weeks we’ve taken 3 flights, 2 hire cars and this is the 9^th different bed we’ve slept in!

Leaving on Boxing Day at the start of our big trip was difficult for me as I lost my Dad just 3 days before Christmas.  Apart from the shock, there was the emotional pull of wanting to be with family, but we decided to carry on as my brother will be arranging the funeral

The long haul flight from Heathrow to LA was the most comfortable we’d ever experienced.  Air New Zealand premium economy is amazingly high spec and has now spoilt us for the future!  By comparison United Airlines from San Francisco to Honolulu was c***.  The plan of flying west has really worked and we’ve not experienced jet lag so far….We met Glenn’s son Tim at the Radisson hotel in LA as planned, but all was not well with him.  He had a really bad dose of food poisoning and his journey from Mexico to be with us had been fraught with complication.  Nevertheless we set off for San Diego the next morning – trial by fire on 7 lane highways in a small (by American standards) hire car surrounded by huge trucks vehicles that looked like they came straight out of cartoons.  Installed in our first motel we left Tim to recover and went in search of the ocean.  We watched the sun set into the Pacific at the end of an old pier with fishermen and families vying for space in the dilapidated wooden café selling clam chowder and tacos with chillies and cheese. We took a drive through suburbia on the way back to the motel and marvelled at the excess in Christmas lighting.  Already noticing the waste in packaging and too large portions of food (everyone needs to take out a doggy bag it seems), we now wondered at the cost both to the pocket and the planet in the burning of so much energy.  Not only Christmas lights, but all the commercial signs and gas flares illuminating walkways to restaurants just abound everywhere in the cities.

Tim recovered enough to be able to do a tour of the Midway (aircraft carrier) in San Diego next day with his dad while I took a tour bus of the city.  In fact Glenn quips that already on this tour he has been on an (each is “AWESOME”) aircraft carrier, the last of the great battleships the “Mighty Mo” USS Missouri and a submarine and Sue has eaten a lot of ice cream – so all are happy!

SanFran was memorable for its good weather for the time of year and we did all the usual things.  Glenn ate crab. And more crab. He went up and down every Switchback on every Cable car (poor, sad thing) and I went shopping (yeehah).  We then visited with (notice how we are stumbling into the vernacular) Sue’s  sister-in-law and managed to start leaving stuff behind, in which will probably become a repetitious and senior feature of this trip.

Onwards to Hawaii and Waikiki beach.  We write this from our 17^th floor condo (we think it is called Benidorm Towers) but somehow it isn’t Benidorm but if it is, it has ATTITUDE!  It is as beautiful as they say so that we won’t bore you.  The pix speak a thousand words.  It is full of great WWII ships (Glenn made me put that in).  Some above water and, sadly, some underwater……..  But the Americans do do things well at their visitor sites. 

We move on into the 3^rd world tomorrow and may lose internet for a while.  Those lovely people in Fiji have already moved one of our flights and cancelled another, so we are not best pleased and the weather looks like unrelenting warm rain for the entire stay in what is, of course, cyclone season.   It’s not all plain sailing but Glenn reckons it won’t affect the diving too much so he plans to get seriously wet anyway.  Aloha from Oahu…

PS from Glenn:  did I mention the great ships!!??  PLEASE, PLEASE someone ask me for more pix of them!